Brisbane belatedly kickstarted their NRL premiership defence with a comfortable 32-10 victory over the Sydney Roosters at a rain-swept Aussie Stadium.

Skipper Darren Lockyer and centre Justin Hodges both starred as the Broncos ran in six tries to two to cast aside three weeks of near misses and claim their opening victory of 2007.

Lockyer and Hodges both set up two tries with Lockyer scoring another and winger Steve Michaels landing a double.

The loss leaves the winless Roosters rooted to the bottom of the table and still chasing their 1000th premiership win after reaching 999 in August last year.

Despite the 22-point margin, coach Chris Anderson, who last week accused his players of "giving up" in the loss to Manly, hailed the performance as his team's best in a so far disappointing season.

"I was really pleased, I thought we were in the fight tonight, we were in the arm wrestle, we just made too many mistakes," said Anderson, whose side battled back from 16-0 down to trail 20-10 early in the second half before Brisbane sealed the result with two late tries.

"It's a huge improvement from where we were, so we've really got something to build on, which I'm quite happy with.

"We didn't really worry about the result, it was just about being in the race and I thought we did that."

After blowing an eight-point lead in the final six minutes against Penrith last week, the Broncos made sure of their victory tonight, playing controlled football in the second half as heavy rain drenched much of the 11,476-strong crowd.

"We got in front tonight and I guess we learned a lesson last week and didn't want to let them back in, so we kept it pretty simple, and didn't force the issue too much," said Lockyer.

After scoring four tries against Penrith last week, Hodges provided two of the Broncos' three opening half tries tonight with the second coming in the 27th minute for a 16-0 lead, an absolute gem.

The Australian centre side stepped Iosia Soliola at the halfway line before palming off replacement forward Willie Brown to make the initial break.

He charged downfield, sold the perfect dummy to Roosters fullback Anthony Minichiello and then threw a basketball-style pass to hooker Shaun Berrigan who scored.

Karmichael Hunt and Greg Eastwood also crossed for the Broncos.

Winger Shaun Kenny-Dowall scored a 70 metre intercept try on the cusp of halftime to give his side hope of a comeback, before centre Joel Monaghan finished off the Roosters best backline movement of the game early in the second half involving Braith Anasta and Minichiello.

Monaghan left with a hamstring injury after scoring, but is hopeful of being fit for the Roosters next game against Canberra in 10 days time.

While not put on report, Roosters Craig Fitzgibbon is likely to come under scrutiny from the match review committee for a high shot on Broncos winger Steve Michaels in the first half.

Broncos coach Wayne Bennett, who was reportedly set to jump ship to the Roosters at the end of last season before deciding to stay put with Brisbane, however believes Fitzgibbon should be right.

"Craig Fitzgibbon isn't a dirty player. He just got a little excited there," said Bennett.

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